


The Watchtower

by realityisoverrated



Series: Infinite Love [177]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Toliver, flommy, olicity - Freeform, smoaking billioanaires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 00:50:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15718530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityisoverrated/pseuds/realityisoverrated
Summary: Felicity receives a surprise visit from Bruce Wayne and Ray Palmer. Bruce wants her help convincing Oliver to agree to a new way of fighting crime. Ray is there to make sure Felicity doesn't throw Bruce out of her office before she's heard them out. Felicity brings the proposal to the team, already knowing what their answer will be. William gets to experience something new as a member of Team Arrow.





	The Watchtower

**Author's Note:**

> This story depicts a polyamorous relationship between one woman and two men. If this is not something you are interested in, please stop and go no further.
> 
> Everyone seemed to enjoy a peek at the Justice League in my last update. I've had this current installment in my draft folder for awhile waiting to be edited. Your enthusiasm for Gone Elvis inspired me to finish this update.
> 
> This installment is 140/177. The chronological list for the series, with hyperlinks, can be found at http://archiveofourown.org/works/11051019
> 
> A big welcome to new readers. Welcome to the verse. The more the merrier!

Artwork by ligiapimenta

 

“Good morning, Jerry,” Felicity placed a cup of coffee and an insulated bag on his desk. “Tommy made us breakfast. We can eat while we run down our schedule.”

“Felicity,” Jerry’s eyes darted to her office door. “Bruce Wayne and Ray Palmer were in your office when I got here this morning.”

“Of course they were,” she muttered. She was going to have to reevaluate her security protocols if Bruce was able to make it to her floor without triggering any alarms. Neither billionaire had a sense of personal boundaries. Ray’s propensity to show up unannounced was always due to enthusiasm. She’d learned long ago that her friend had a one-track mind when it came to his special projects and that he approached everything with the enthusiasm of an overeager Labrador puppy. Bruce showed up unannounced to gain strategic advantage, but mostly to piss off Oliver. It was rare for Bruce and Ray to be together. Bruce had little patience for Ray’s good-natured fervor for life. It was one thing Oliver and Bruce had in common.

“Jerry, please order coffee and whatever microbiotic crap breakfast Bruce eats,” she requested. “I don’t know how Alfred has put up with him for all these years.”

“Already done,” Jerry said with a smile. “Would you like me to rearrange your schedule for the morning?”

“Let me see what they want,” she handed him her jacket. “I’ll let you know when you bring in our breakfast.”

Felicity took a deep breath before entering her office. It was always good to keep a clear head around Bruce. “Good morning, gentlemen,” she said with a bright smile. “To what do I owe this rude interruption of my day?”

Ray kissed the cheek she offered, “I’m not sure. Bruce was on my doorstep this morning and told me we were coming to see you.”

Clearly, Bruce wanted something, and he’d decided to use Ray as his buffer. He knew that Felicity had a soft spot for Ray and wouldn’t throw them out on principle alone. The Bat was sneaky.

“You’re too old to be playing games, Bruce,” Felicity accepted his kiss on her cheek. “What do you want?”

“One of these days, I’m going to catch you flustered and you’re going to agree to run away with me,” Bruce winked.

“You’re not up for the challenge. It takes two men to handle me,” she said with a straight face.

“How are the kids?” Ray asked.

Felicity smiled at her favorite topic. She gestured for them to take a seat, “They’re good. William is settling in with both family businesses. I think Bobby will be starting high school in the fall. Becca is a mini me. There’s nothing quite like arguing with a five-year-old version of yourself. Nate has taken to climbing and more terrifying – jumping. He has collectively taken decades off our lives. Prue has bounced back from her last surgery and is the mastermind of Nate’s adventures.

Ray’s smile was broad and genuine, “I’m very glad to hear it.”

Felicity could live one hundred lifetimes and never be able to repay Ray for what he did for her family. Without Ray, Tommy would’ve been lost to them forever.

“How are you?” Felicity asked him.

“I can’t complain,” he grinned.

“How are the boys and Alfred?” Felicity asked Bruce.

“Busy and the same,” Bruce gave his standard reply.

It was all Felicity could do to keep from rolling her eyes. Bruce had a gift for understatement. For a man who insisted on operating alone, he had acquired a rather large family. He had a complicated relationship with his four sons, but she had no doubt of his love for them, even if he spoke about them begrudgingly. His eldest son, Dick, was one of William’s closest friends, in and out of their masks.

“Not that I don’t love seeing you before my second cup of coffee - why are you here at 7:00 am?”

“We want to discuss a joint venture,” Bruce responded.

Ray shrugged when Felicity looked his way. “It’s news to me,” he said with a cheerful grin.

“What can I do for your Bruce?” Felicity asked, taking a seat, gesturing for Bruce and Ray to join her.

“I want you to give me – us RK287,” Bruce said plainly.

"Oh," Ray said with surprise. He looked sheepishly at Felicity, "I guess we're here about that."

Felicity was unable to maintain her poker face. Her eyebrows climbed her forehead. “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to hack one another’s businesses.” The patented tech Bruce was asking for was a weapon guidance system that Oliver had shelved when he’d taken the role of CEO and she'd spent the last year tinkering with and taking apart. The artificial intelligence software had been ahead of it's time and Felicity had removed it from the guidance system and was working on improving it for use by doctors and hospitals to help make diagnosis faster and more accurate.

“Did you seriously expect me not to keep an eye on the tech you’re developing for your team?” Bruce said with a tone that was barely this side of contemptuous.

“Yes,” she answered simply. “Friends don’t hack friends, Bruce. Did you even go to kindergarten?”

Bruce flashed his most charming smile. “Of course, kindergarten is where I learned to share.”

Felicity snorted, “You need to go back, the lesson didn’t stick.”

Ray raised his hand, “Actually, I might’ve told him about it. When I was in grad school, I worked on the initial design.”

“I’m pretty sure you signed an NDA when you were Robert’s intern,” Felicity said sharply. “It’s not for sale.”

“Wayne Enterprises isn’t looking to buy it,” Bruce said.

Realization dawned on who really wanted the tech. “What does Batman want with it? You have plenty of bat doomaphlages, why do you need our weapon guidance system?”

Bruce crossed his legs and casually slung his arm across the back of the sofa. His dress shirt accentuated the broadness of his chest and his perfectly tailored pants emphasized the power of his thighs. Even at forty-seven, Bruce was an attractive man. He was three inches taller than Oliver and had arms that rivaled John’s. Felicity couldn’t help but giggle at his smoldering display. Bruce was used to women falling at his feet, flustered by his handsomeness, and willing to comply with his every demand. He never knew what to make of Felicity when he was Bruce. The real, genuine Bruce only ever made an appearance when he was in his suit with his cowl lowered. Not for the first time, Felicity felt sorry for Bruce and grateful Oliver had gone down a different path.

“Batman doesn’t want it, The Justice League does,” Bruce said.

“Why’d they send you?” Felicity stood up, “Why’d you come to me? I’m not a member of the League, Oliver is.”

“Bullshit,” Bruce said, rising to his feet. “You might not wear a mask, but you’re as much a member as the rest of us. We came to you because we need Oliver to listen, and he only listens to you. I only came to make sure Palmer didn’t back down when you used your loud voice.” Bruce snapped his fingers at Ray. With a flick of his wrist a thumb drive appeared between his fingers. “Hurry up and show her before she throws us out.”

“If anyone is getting thrown out, it’s you,” Felicity said with frustration. Bruce had a lot of nerve accusing Oliver of being stubborn. At least Oliver listened to someone. It wasn’t true that Oliver only listened to her – not anymore. He respected and listened to many people, just not Bruce – they were too much alike. Bruce was the one who didn’t listen to anyone’s opinion but his own. Even Alfred and Dick were ignored when they disagreed with Bruce.

Ray looked unsure as he waited for her to give her permission. She sighed and made a sweeping gesture for him to start. Ray turned off all the lamps in her office. “I need the room to be dark.”

Jerry knocked sharply on her door and walked in without waiting for her response. He placed a tray on her table, “Have you decided?”

“Reschedule the next three hours,” Felicity said. “Thank you.”

Jerry disappeared as quickly as he appeared.

“You have three hours,” she said to Bruce. “I ordered breakfast. There’s something green and nasty for you.”

Bruce smirked as he picked up the tumbler that contained whatever Jerry had ordered. Felicity hoped it tasted gross. It smelled disgusting. She grabbed her coffee and half a bagel.

“Yum, oatmeal,” Ray said happily. He added fruit to his bowl while a small projector warmed up. A 3-D projection of Overwatch filled the space between the seating area and her desk.

“Why are you showing me a picture of my satellite. I know what it looks like,” Felicity said around a mouthful of bagel.

“It’s not Overwatch – it’s called the Watchtower,” Ray said. “Wayne Enterprises is going to launch it with their next payload in the spring.”

Felicity glared at Bruce. “You stole the specs for Overwatch?”

He took a sip of his drink and shrugged.

“We want to use the AI in the guidance system for the Watchtower protocol,” Ray said.

“What’s the Watchtower protocol?” Felicity asked with suspicion.

“It would give the League the ability to monitor the communications of everyone across the globe – phone calls, emails, texts, social media – civilians and government agencies, and predict where the League should concentrate our efforts,” Ray explained.

A chill fell over Felicity as she listened to Ray. She looked between both men, “Are you insane? We can’t do that. No one should do that.”

“The world has become an increasingly dangerous place. Individual actors are committing acts of terror around the globe and the legitimate governments seem incapable of stopping them,” Bruce said.

Felicity could hardly believe what she was hearing. “Yeah, Bruce, because most governments have laws that protect their citizens from invasions of privacy by the government. What you want to do here is wrong. Who are you answerable to?”

“Who are you answerable to when you and your team chase criminals? You don’t use search warrants. You weren’t elected or appointed by the government,” Bruce challenged. “How many government agencies, private companies, and people have you hacked in order to get Oliver the information he needs to bring down a criminal?”

“That’s different,” Felicity said. “We only go after suspects.” She pointed to the projection, “What you’re talking about doing is unthinkable. You want to spy on all of the people, all of the time.”

“You use facial recognition software that you designed. You gave that technology to the Flash. Why is this any different?”

“Because I trust Cisco Ramon and Barry Allen,” Felicity snapped.

“You don’t trust me?” Bruce said, sounding slightly hurt.

“I don’t trust anyone enough to give them the kind of power you’re asking for, but I definitely don’t trust you.” Felicity clasped her hands and leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees, “You say that Oliver listens to me, he does. When he goes too far, I pull him back in. Barry and Cisco have their team. Oliver and Barry have strong moral compasses that are backed up by the moral compasses on their teams. You don’t listen to anyone. When you go too far, who pulls you back from the edge?”

“I have Alfred and Dick,” Bruce said defiantly.

“Is that why Dick moved to Bludhaven? Because you’re so reasonable?” Felicity asked, hating the pain her words were probably causing the man in front of her.

“You accuse me of not having a moral compass? I don’t kill. Your husband can’t make the same claim,” Bruce taunted.

Felicity bit her tongue to keep herself from swearing. She counted silently to three. “Oliver kills only when it’s absolutely necessary – to save a life or self-defense. He doesn’t execute people – not in fifteen years.” She leaned back in her chair. “It might be more immoral to allow someone to continue to terrorize your population. The Scarecrow is a good example.”

“Well, I do think your husband’s permanent solution to the Dr. Crane problem was more execution and less self-defense,” Bruce said. “Lucky for him, I never found any proof. I wouldn’t tolerate Oliver’s policies in Gotham, but I shouldn’t expect anything less from a man trained by Amanda Waller.”

“I’m not having this fight with you, Bruce. I’m also not going to tell Oliver to sign off on your idea. Didn’t you pay attention in school? Spying on people, that’s fascism.”

“What if,” Ray said to Felicity, drawing her attention away from Bruce, “we don’t capture everything? What if we only deploy AI - that you help me code - to look for certain markers? You already do that for Oliver. I’ve seen your web crawlers. You look for signs that indicate trouble.”

“Not with personal emails and texts. I look for unusual patterns in crime statistics or public utility consumption. I’m not proactively checking all text messages to see if someone is possibly plotting to rob a bank,” Felicity said.

“Maybe you should be,” Bruce challenged. “Maybe we all should. If we can be there and catch the bank robber before he steps through the door because of a text, or a serial rapist because of spending habits on his credit card, don’t we have an obligation to do so?”

“Bruce, thinking about a crime, isn’t a crime. I’m thinking about strangling you right now, but I’m not going to do it. If we go with this plan, you’ll be going after people you suspect will commit a crime. That’s not what Oliver, John, Roy, and I signed up for. We’re never going to support being the thought police and if that’s where the Justice League is heading, I don’t think we’ll be sticking around.”

"Privacy is an illusion. You, above all people, should know that, Felicity," Bruce said, the heat gone from his voice.

"It's because I know what it's like to lose my privacy, that I can say with authority - this is wrong. If we do this, we will be violating the trust of all the people who have  placed their faith in us to protect them."

“Are you speaking for Queen?” Bruce asked.

“I would never presume to speak for Oliver, but on this, I have no doubt, that we’re on the same page.” She sighed, “I will talk to the team. I’ll tell them what you’re proposing, but I won’t advocate for you. If you want to try to change Oliver’s mind, you’re welcome to try.” She held her hand towards Ray, “May I have your presentation. Diggle loves your 3-D projections.”

Ray’s face lit up and he removed the thumb drive from his projector, “I made the rendering larger for Diggle.”

Felicity took the small drive and placed it on her desk. “Let’s eat breakfast and discuss doing a better job of coordinating the Wayne, Palmer, Queen and Merlyn charitable foundation events for next year. This December, I’m going to spend more time with the two of you than my own children.”

 

“Does he do these 3-D presentations just to annoy me?” Diggle asked as he squinted at the projection of the Watchtower. “What’s wrong with a 2-D slide presentation? I know what a satellite is.”

“You know, John, for a sharp shooter, you don’t have great depth perception,” Felicity said, fighting a smile.

William snorted with amusement.

Diggle shot William a look. “There’s nothing wrong with my depth perception. This is just fancier than it needs to be.” He returned his attention to his nephew, “You just earned yourself another fifty pushups tonight, kiddo.”

“I didn’t say anything? Felicity said your depth perception is terrible,” William groused.

“Was I ever this stupid?” Roy muttered.

“Yes,” Oliver, Felicity and Diggle said together.

“I learned a long time ago that Felicity won’t do push ups for anyone. If I want to punish her, I need to melt the ice cream or turn off the wifi.” When Felicity glared at him, Diggle continued, “Which I will never do again after the incident of July 23rd, 2013.”

“What happened on July 23rd, 2013?” William asked.

Oliver and Roy rolled their eyes. Felicity and Diggle both shuddered. The summer after the Undertaking, Felicity and Diggle had spent almost all their free time in the basement of Verdant trying to prepare for Oliver’s return. The first thing Felicity had installed was the cables for wifi, cables Diggle accidentally destroyed with a jackhammer. Felicity was unable to stream music or Netflix for three days. Diggle was under a lifetime ban of doing any kind of repairs without checking with Felicity first about the location of all her precious wires and cables. Felicity said, “We don’t speak of the horrible events of that day. Suffice it to say, Diggle learned his lesson and we’ve never had a repeat.”

“You told him, no,” Oliver said, returning to the business at hand.

It was Felicity’s turn to roll her eyes, “No, I told him that I’ve been itching to get into the supervillain business. There’s not enough female representation amongst the criminal classes and I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door.”

“I wish I could say I’m surprised Bruce is even entertaining this idea, but he’s such a control freak,” Oliver said. “I can’t believe there isn’t a part of him that sees this as dangerous.”

“I suspect that he does,” John said. “I bet he went to Felicity because he needed to hear someone tell him no to keep him honest. This way he can pretend he considered all sides when this all goes pear shaped.”

“I would tell him, no,” Oliver grumbled.

“Yeah, but Felicity is way prettier than you,” Roy teased. “Bruce has been in love with Felicity for as long as he’s known her.”

“Hardly,” Felicity said. She didn’t think Bruce was capable of truly loving someone. He never put the needs of anyone ahead of his need for justice. Bruce valued her intellect. He might even feel affection for her, but Bruce Wayne was not in love with her. “I’m about to turn forty. Bruce doesn’t look at women over twenty-three.”

“That’s not fair,” Oliver said in a rare display of solidarity with Bruce. “He plays the cad, but you know he only has eyes for one woman - and she’s older than me.”

“Luckily, I came along and put an end to that stupid playboy persona of yours,” Felicity said, wrapping her arms around her husband.

Roy snorted derisively and turned to William, “Your father, never had game. It was painful to watch him – like agonizingly painful. I honestly don’t know how he got anyone to have sex with him.”

“Hey,” Oliver said.

“His abs,” Felicity said at the same time. When Oliver glared at her she said, “What, it couldn’t have been just me? Oh wait, it wasn’t. Tommy did too.”

“Tommy loved me before I had all my abs,” Oliver pouted.

William burst out laughing.

“There’s hope for you yet, junior,” Roy slapped William’s stomach. “You have your dad’s abs and a way better personality.”

“It’s not too late for me to put another arrow through you,” Oliver said to his brother-in-law. He then pointed to his son, “You should stop laughing or I’ll have Tommy give you another tutorial on flirting.”

William looked horrified, “I’m done laughing.”

“Before William thinks we don’t actually accomplish anything at our meetings, let’s take a vote. All in favor of telling Bruce, no, raise your hand.” Felicity held up her hand, as did Oliver, John, and Roy. William stood with his hands at his side watching them. “All those in favor of voting, yes, raise your hand.” William’s hand remained down. “William,” she said out of the side of her mouth, “you forgot to vote.”

William stood up straight, “I get a vote?”

Diggle, Roy, and Oliver all turned to look at the cases where their uniforms stood. Diggle pointed to William’s suit. “Is that yours?”

“Yes,” William answered proudly.

“Then you get a vote,” Diggle said. “The team is a democracy, even if Felicity thinks she’s our benevolent overlord.”

Felicity cleared her throat, “Now that that’s settled, let’s vote.”

“Wait,” William interrupted. “I don’t understand why it’s a bad thing – what Mr. Wayne is asking for. If we can identify the criminals and stop them before they act – why is that wrong? Isn’t that how the government catches terrorists?”

“We fool ourselves to think that we will only use surveillance for good – that we’re just and righteous. Having the amount of knowledge about average citizens that this protocol will collect – no amount of good can offset the potential for bad,” Oliver explained. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The kind of information the Watchtower will be able to collect is a form of power that must be checked. No one in the Justice League was elected into their position. We are private citizens, not a government. This information could be used to threaten, intimidate, or blackmail ordinary people.”

“We operate outside the law,” William said. “How is that different?”

“We do operate outside the law, but we’re not the law. We investigate, we capture, but we don’t try the people that we catch. We can’t sentence them. We turn them over to the police and the district attorney.” Oliver sighed, “When I first started this, I was judge, jury, and executioner. I was wrong. John and Felicity taught me that. We can’t get justice for victims if we turn the criminals into our victims.”

“So, Felicity, John, and Roy keep you honest. They’re your checks and balance,” William said.

Oliver shook his head. “To a certain extent that is true, but we have to be careful about group think and becoming an echo chamber. We have been known to be wrong - rarely. At the end of the day, when I’m climbing into bed, if I can’t look Tommy in the eyes and tell him what I did, then I screwed up. He’s the Jimney Cricket to my Pinocchio.”

William smiled, “What would the criminals of Starling say if they knew the Green Arrow watches Disney movies?”

“They’d know that he has kids under ten,” Oliver said with a smile. “Do you have enough information to vote or do you want to discuss this more?”

“I’m ready to vote.”

“All in favor of telling Bruce, no,” Felicity raised her had. The other members of Team Arrow, including William raised their hands.

“Excellent. While I write a strongly worded encrypted email to Bruce, someone needs to order dinner, I’m starving,” Felicity said.

Oliver kissed the top of her head. She covered his hand where it rested on her shoulder. “Are you going to train with William?”

“I was thinking I would,” Oliver answered. “He needs to work on his hold escapes.”

“Are you going to be shirtless this evening, Mr. Queen?” She bit her lip and ran her eyes up and down his body.

“Is that a request?”

She gave him an innocent look, “I’m just trying to decide if I should turn on my cameras in the gym.”

Oliver let out a deep belly laugh. “Exhibit A for my argument.”

“You corrupted me from the moment I first saw you,” Felicity said.

Oliver leaned over and pressed his lips to her ear and practically purred, “I love that you watch me. I always have.”

Oliver had never been shy. When they first started working together, she noticed that his shirt came off whenever she was around to admire the view. He preened and strutted as he hung from rafters, swung hammers, and climbed ropes. All these years later, she was convinced he installed the salmon ladder with the sole motivation of torturing her. Oliver was an exhibitionist, but only for her. Felicity smiled and said, “Tell me something I don’t know, Mr. Queen.”

Oliver brushed her hair aside and kissed the side of her neck. “You’re going to want to put those cameras on, Ms. Smoak.”

Her cameras were on when Oliver stepped into the gym and pulled his shirt off, looked towards the lens and winked.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcomed and appreciated.
> 
> It's hard to believe it, but the next installment will bring me to one million words written for this series. Unthinkable that I've written so much and incredible that you've wanted to read them. Thank you!
> 
> Prompts are encouraged.
> 
> You can also come say hi to me on tumblr. I'm always happy to answer questions about this verse or anything else Arrow. http://realityisoverrated-fic.tumblr.com


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